Hot & Smoky

Gainesville

This will be a short one. I was Little Suzy Homemaker all day-- Got up at a decent hour, got the house completely Blessed (on Monday, yet), worked in Zone 5 (hauled out the impossibly heavy and unweildy Dirt Devil and, after evicting the cat, vacuumed the TV-room carpet).

Made a very strange thing for dinner-- Leanne calls it "Wild Rice and Blue Cheese Skillet" but I call it "One Weird Frittata." It called for no salt, so I added plenty at the table; Bill doused his in Cholula hot sauce. We were both well fed; the cat, however, had issues with this particular dish.

Made a four bean salad to go with it, with the leftover string beans from last night. It all went together rather well. I'd made the wild rice in plenty of time, and it was my first use of the wild rice Sandy brought down a year ago. It was outstanding! I was eating it out of the pot as it cooled, before it had a chance to make it into the frittata.

Air hot and very smoky again today. Turns out it's not local fires, but the big one in Georgia, over 100 miles away. Weather conditions are unfortunately right for blowing it all down on us.

Hugely enjoying the Walt & Skeezix race with Avery from NYC to SF. What a joy! No wonder people loved that strip so passionately.

Thanks for transcribing Sharon Workman's narrative, Mom. It's a great contribution to the family history here at Lotsa Flies. I know I've said it before, but we came close to having Lee Shaw be a part of our family tree-- his sister Dianne "dated" a Workman boy while we were visiting in Iowa way back when.

Also, thanks for the intelligence about bread machines. I'm encouraged that your liked your original one so well. I will keep looking into them, and also into a decent slicer for bread and meat both.

This afternoon I listened for awhile to the 40's station. More about this tomorrow. Wrote a long email message earlier tonight, so I'm already typed out... surprised I'm still able to say...

G'nite.

A little family history

30.IV.07 - MoM

I am enjoying spring this year more than anytime I can remember. I think part of it is having so many jonquils and daffodils blooming all around. I really must learn which are which. Which ever they are, this year they are all spectacular. I picked some more today, and have an even prettier arrangements with the pussy willows.

In the early '90s, I bought my first bread maker. It was the popular one at that time (sorry I can't remember which one) and it was wonderful. We didn't buy bread for quite a few years. I must admit that I only made white bread (favorite of DoD). We had an electric slicer for meat and bread. It was so easy to turn out perfect bread with so little effort every time. However, it finally wore out and gave up. It was no longer available, so I bought one almost like it, but I could not count on a good loaf every time. Gradually we went to back to store bought bread. I gave that one to Marty for a garage sale. I replaced the broken down slicer that took 2 people to hold it together, with a good one. As I think I have mentioned before, it was easier to have it at Sandy and Charlie's, as it is a drag to clean so they slice what I need.

While Sandy was "doing" a school in Hammond today she picked up some of the grocery-type stuff that I was running low on. I didn't do any last week and we will shop Friday this week. While she was there, she saw a large tomato plant in a hanging pot that was almost ready to bloom. She was particularly intrigued with its name, "Tumbling Tom." She called to check to see if I wanted it. I was delighted to have it to add to my front deck.

I have my net connection shut off do the thunder and lightning and now some rain. There are watches around us and I have my weather radio beside me.

I am continuing sorting my magazine mess. I have stacks of mostly cooking mags that I have never even opened. When I first subscribed I did peruse them, but from the unopened ones, I think I got behind when I started the German and French classes. It doesn't make sense to keep them when I do so little cooking now. I also turned up a lot more Bon Apetit that my Jehovah Witness friends are so fond of. From the earlier batch that a gave them, a group of them had some dinner parties preparing recipes from them. I still get the annuals for such as "Cooks Illustrated," "Taste of Home," etc., so no need to keep the mags.

If the storms finally pass on through, I don't expect to have any problems sleeping tonight, as I was too busy working to take time out for naps today. The sleeping temps have been excellent lately.

* * * * *

I came across this in a file folder yesterday and thought you might enjoy it. I got it off of the computer. Ir was written by the daughter of one of my oldest Workman cousins. She also did a magnificent job of the "Frederick Christian Bauman" autobiography. Chris discovered these. He also discovered the pictures of the Niesen graves in the Marysville cemetery.

Hardy Pioneers, by Sharon Workman

The following is taken from an article written in August, 1961 by Mabel Bauman, sister of Samuel Henry Bauman (my great grandfather). In this account Mabel describes herself as "the one survivor of the Bauman family." Mabel was the daughter of Elizabeth Cort and Frederick Christian Bauman. She was born in 1879 and died June 24, 1963.

"In the year of 1846, Daniel and Sarah Cort decided to leave Adamsburg, PA and "go west." To many, this slogan meant gold, but this was not their impelling motive. Theirs was to seek a home in the new territory. Government lands that were being offered at a low purchase price, and that gave promise of opportunity for the welfare of this family. So, with a team of horses and a wagon loaded with all their possessions, they boarded a riverboat at Pittsburg, and via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, they finally landed at Rock Island, Illinois. While waiting to have the horses shod, Daniel noticed a young lad shaking violently. The blacksmith noticed and said, "Oh, that's nothing. Lots of people around here have the 'agee.'" This made clear to Daniel Cort that a malarial infested region was not the place for him or his family.

Then he said, "I was told there were fresh water springs somewhere in this territory." "Oh" was his answer. "You will find plenty of springs on the other side of the river and a little farther north." So, with horses and wagon, they came at last to Dubuque County, Iowa and settled where they lived until his death in 1895 (Sarah Cort having died in 1894). The springs which lured them to this place furnished an abundance of clear, cold refreshing water, - no ice cubes needed. The "springhouse," which he constructed with stone platforms holding crocks of sweet milk and butter, with cold water flowing all around was a marvel of efficiency.

(To be continued.)

The Vow

Gainesville

Got the sheets changed and laundered, and the towels too. I'm experimenting with moving these two Blessings to Sunday to leave more time on Monday for the rest of the weekly stuff. We'll see how that works.

Went with Bill on a forage to Lowe's. It was fun, but it left me a bit behind getting dinner started, especially since it including snapping a big bunch of beans. Had to do something other than planned with the pork tenderloin, as I could not find fresh plums (well, duh-- who would publish a recipe calling for them this time of year? Leanne, that's who. She must live in Patagonia.) Found a recipe in Low Carb Menus in Minutes (a book I never use because the recipes are much too complicated), for "Pan-Asian Pork." It looked easy, and I thought I had it under control enough to spontaneously add the suggested side of a sweet/sour cuke/radish relish thing. Actually, I did have enough time, but just blew it on the logistics, doing things in the wrong order, and forgetting all about the cauli-rice I had all ready to put in the mike until almost too late. Then the pork didn't get done enough under the broiler before it started to burn, and parts had to be finished in the mike at the same time the cauli-rice was cooking, on and on. Half hour late and a brick shy. It all turned out pretty well, all things considered. And the kitchen is completely back to fighting form.

It's so great having the Cuisinart on the drainboard. I used it for both the rice and the relish tonight. I am starting to bond with it. Maybe I'll actually learn to use it effectively this time.

And speaking of machines, what's the collective wisdom on bread machines? I find myself, after all this time, interested in one. I truly love fresh bread, but only have it once a week, and am not thrilled by the stuff Publix puts in their bakery bread. It's too long a trek across town to go to Upper Crust / Fresh Market very often. I'm thinking I could make small amounts of bread just for me more frequently. I KNOW I'll never have the patience to make it by hand-- fooled around with that in the 70's enough to know it's not for me. So far I'm just in the stalking/research phase.

It is dreadfully hot here-- first day in the 90's, and it was a blow just stepping outside. There are wildfires in the area, so the air was a bit smoky besides. The meal I fixed couldn't have been less appropriate: a pot of boiling water for the beans, the broiler on for the meat, cauli-rice steaming hot from the mike and the only "cool" dish, the cuke relish, HOT with red pepper flakes. Poor planning all around.

We looked at patio furniture at Lowes-- not for now, of course, but for fall, when it once again becomes bearable to be outside. Want to get rid of all the moldering, cheap aluminum and plastic junk we've got and get something decent and heavy enough to not be tossed about in hurricanes.

Spent some time in the disaster area today, looking for the clock radio that was replaced by the Bose that Bill gave me several years back-- the kitchen radio has given up the ghost, and it would be good to recycle one if we still have it, if only I could find it. God knows we have every other bit of electronics we ever owned. I have a strange feeling I may have given it away to a house guest, but who knows where or when. While in there I gathered up two loads of stuff I know can be tossed, at Bill's suggestion. He promises to get it into the trash pickup by morning.

One day in Zone 5 this week, then four days in... the disaster area (aka the "dining room").. As Blog is my witness, I WILL spend 15 minutes on each of those four days in that hell hole and make some progress. Thus spake the Suze.

No time to read today. Will soak up a few weeks of Walt & Skeezix before hitting the hay.

Lots of exercise today!

29.IV.07 - MoM

I started the day off slowly, as usual on a Sunday, with the TV guide X-word, and all the other features of the StarTrib. However, after a couple of naps in the middle of the day, I decided to see what I could do about the magazines I thought might be added to Marty's sale. It was one of those things that is not easy to just do a little bit. I was at it for over two hours and have hardly scratched the surface. I was going to try to put them in ziplocs for a year at a time (6 issues). After seeing how many Reminiscence and Country Living there are, I might think about donating them to a long time care facility and limit the ones for Marty to the cooking selection. I think lugging them to the front room sofa from the walk in closet one reasonable armload at a time, was good exercise for me.

Currently, I am waiting for my Salisbury Steak TV dinner to be done, then will have my gin after. Later: Even though my taste buds continue to go downhill, I did manage to eat all of it. One dinner used to last me two meals. I wonder if they are making them smaller. I finished off with ice cream. Now I can enjoy my drinks even though I am starting them at 7:30 p.m.

Sandy, I remembered my other accomplishment besides managing to raise the grow lamp -- I finally managed to reset the on/off time of both lamps (I think). I will know better tonight at 9:30, I think it is. (I started to bed earlier than usual last night.)

Spring is really here -- I wore a dress for the first time this year and enjoyed wearing my thong sandals and letting me feet breathe! If this continues I may get out my "summer" lace ups (a size smaller that I can wear without sox). I hate having my toes all cramped up in sox and shoes.

• • • • •

This is the rest of the letter continued from yesterday's blog. I think it is from Saalfelden perhaps around 17.XI.07.

Could not find a birthday card at the last minute for Herb, so sent him greetings on the Pope card from Frankfurt.

Just called Computerland and they say that they sent REPORT out today and I will have it in tomorrow's mail. I really don't believe anything they say anymore and with Wednesday a holiday, I might get it on Friday or so. The Manual is due to arrive in a shipment from Apple this week. I will believe it when I see it. Have decided to get on with my Christmas letters and work further on FILE when they are done and I can give it full concentration. Worked into "Search/Update" but need to go thru it some more and really did not understand all I should for printing. This was just with their examples. So, I will do the Christmas letters with WORD and work out fancy stuff for next year. Since I have been leaving your letter in memory, it could go on forever, as I add a bit more every time I come in to do other things. I just changed the margins on this portion so have a few more lines to work with.

Have the Christmas letter written and have started printing them. Have worked it out so I can use both sides of the paper, carry over the last few lines or the canned part, then have plenty of room for the personal stuff. I find it harder to cramp things into the small space left for some of the people that I need to write more to. I do a small bunch of the 1st side, then tear off a batch and run page 2 after I have the personal message. Can't do it easily to this letter as I had torn off the edges. Could hand feed, however. Will probably use both sides for long letters in the future.

Enough for now. We did not need to go shopping today (Tuesday the 20th) so did not get this in the mail. Want to have it ready for tomorrow's shopping trip. Hope you did not get the flu. Our love, to Bob.

Half Decent

Gainesville

Was a good week. For once, feel like a bit of actual progress was made, in addition to not losing ground. I know such weeks are rare, and so treasure them all the more when they happen.

Got weekly shopping done, fridge now packed again, but with one shelf, long overdue, cleared off. A half-decent menu plan for the week is in place. A Plan B stashed here and there.

Tonight's Braised Tilapia with Artichokes and Peppers was quite wonderful and quite easy. All thumbs and claws up.

I am wallowing in Walt & Skeezix II. Mom, do you remember anything about Gasoline Alley when you were growing up? You would have been just a little bit older than Skeezix. I can see why people got so caught up in it. Great story telling, glorious art, and Skeezix is just so gosh darn cute.

Good for you, Mom, persisting in your closet, but not crashing and burning. I'm proud of you.

I do wish we could get Marty down here to do a yard sale for us, since there's no way we can teleport our VaBS (Valuable But Surplus) stuff to her. They will all end up in a dumpster sooner or later.

Ho Hum -- Just another day more or less

28.IV.07 - MoM

Another perfect day for temperature. No need for heat or cooling. It was in the mid-70s. I am glad to have the Venetian shades in what was the bar that we installed soon after we arrived. We haven't used them a lot but the sun was blinding me on my left so they really helped.

In the morning, I finished up and mailed the rest of the few checks I write each month. Since I mostly use the laptop by my chair in the living room, the OIB is so handy. My desk is still staying neat, but I like using the new laptop instead of the older one at my desk. Besides, I can put my feet up in the recliner there.

I took care of a couple of weeks washing. It is so easy to hang it up and or put it away at once. Wouldn't it have been nice If I had done that in Los Altos, instead of having the pile in the corner for the family to dive into to find what they needed. Where was FL when I needed her. I still have several Sunset books on the subject of daily routines that are a kick. I always started at full bore but it only lasted a few days.

I managed do a little more on the closet on one of the shelves. I kept it to a reasonable amount of time and managed to toss some. I have an added incentive to pour it on this week. I am trying come up as much as I can for Marty's yard sale next weekend. Better for her to have it than Goodwill.

Only had time for a quick 15-minute nap before calling Thea today. Looking forward to bed tonight. Thank goodness her own ears and the telephone were working today.

* * * * *

This is a continuation of a previous letter to Sandy and there is no date. However, I think it was Dec of 1984.

Well, since this did not get mailed over the weekend and we did not hear from you before you left, I will enclose the letters with this. But, what are we to do with the two music tapes that came from J. Lindell of Stillwater, Minn.?

Our visit with the Wontrobas was very nice and they were so thrilled (the only word that fits) to have us. They thanked us so much for coming! And we were invited back for Christmas. We were asked our preference of days -- the first day of Christmas or the second day of Christmas. Chose the 2nd day. Frau Wontroba had learned a little English many years ago in school but has forgotten it. She does understand a little and knows a few words. Her sister was very good in languages and laughed at her attempts so she put it out of her mind. Herr Wontroba was just here to fix the water leak in the basement and before I could tell him how much we enjoyed our visit, he was thanking us for visiting them.

Got the FILE disc copied and began work on FILE yesterday. Have been trying to get DoD to start on WORD but he wants to read all of the stuff first so I am still getting time on the machine. Took one of the house pictures in today for a Christmas card Can you believe they expect to have them ready on Thursday of Friday of this week, even tho there is a holiday on Wednesday? Hope all of the picture fits on the only style of card we saw. They are cropping out the houses on the right, but hope they leave the little bit of mountain that shows. (For some reason my calendar shows a holiday on Wednesday, but the garbage did not go early, so guess it is wrong.)

Need to get back to work on FILE as I want to see if I can work it out for feeding into the Christmas letter. I have thought of a bunch of uses for it already. Was able to format another disc for WORD without going thru any stuff frm the Manual. Do not need it yet but glad to know that it is easy to do. Also, had no problem formatting one for file.

Two Treasures

Gainesville

My big accomplishment the past two days has been to get the entire kitchen floor scrubbed. I figured out how to divide the room in half and move all the furniture to one half and turn Scooba loose on the other. Worked great! One half yesterday, the other today. A very noticable improvement. This has been a good week as far as Blessing the house goes.

As for improving my sleep patterns, not so much. Got to bed at a decent hour last night, but woke with a horrible sinus headache around 4:00, which kept me awake til about 6:00. So instead of being up at 8:15, it was 10:15. Sigh. I'll keep trying. Didn't even try to go into the Lib this afternoon.

Sounds like you got quite a lot done in your bedroom, Mom-- 3 hours, though! That is a recipe for Crash & Burn. I wish you would use your timer and pace yourself.

Oh, you meant Red Lobster (the restaurant) biscuits. Mystery solved.

It's the end of spring semester here, so Outback was packed last night with year end parties. We are looking forward to the deadest two weeks of the year-- between spring and summer terms-- and summer is more laid back than the rest of the year. During this period, the town ALMOST works the way it used to, before the campus population exploded from 14 to 50 thousand students. Traffic will be bearable, as will shopping, parking, restaurants, etc. Of course, the weather will be unbearable, but it's a small price to pay. Sorta. Maybe.

And that unbearable weather has suddenly hit us. I'm hoping you Wisconsinites find yourselves with at least one last cold snap that will trickle its way down to us a few days later. Just a few decent days before the descent into the hellish would be really nice. Part of the impetus to get the floors clean is so we can pad around barefoot on them without encountering anything truly nasty.

The mail brought me two treasures today: one was volume 11 of the Complete Bab 5 Scripts, with the most heart-wrenching commentary yet from JMS. It is amazing how he survived that ordeal between the 4th and 5th seasons. And "Sleeping in Light," well... I've never been able to watch it a second time, because it devastated me so when I first saw it.

The other was volume two of the Chris Ware-designed Walt & Skeezix, if anything, more beautiful than the first. It makes a great antidote to The Road, which I've discovered is even harder to read when the bleak misery is punctuated by something good. (Not sure I'll be able to finish this one.)

I am not prepared for the weekly shop tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Whew! Whew!

27.IV.07 - MoM

If I could do this every day for a little while, I might get caught up. I made sure that the kitchen, especially the sink was shining, first thing this morning. (Of course, no one should look in my pantry.) After my usual morning goof off -- the newspaper, eating, a nap, etc., and my liquid food intake, I decided that I was going to try to do a little bit on the closet.

I thought I might start on the box and sack of travel "trickies," so I brought out the sack first. Eventually, I am going to see if "Turning Point" is interested in them. I soon decided to let sorting them wait for a little longer. But, I did get into combining partly full boxes and stacking some neatly against the wall under the rack of short clothes. I also made up a box of fancy sacks. There is an oversized box on one of the shelves, so will combine them when I get further along. Typical of the contents was a sack from the gift shop at Windsor Castle.

Under stacks of stuff, I finally had to confront a horror I was trying to forget. Late last summer Sandy brought me a beautiful sack of little cucumbers to make dills. The big crock was to large so I had put them in my 6 quart (I think it is) crockpot that I no longer used as I wasn't making salt free soup for DoD. We had messed up on the recipe a little so I wasn't holding our much hope for them. Then my broken hip happened and little by little things began to pile up on top of it till it was well buried. And, it didn't smell at all. I thought of it once in a while but quickly put it out of my mind. Finally, today I had worked my way down to it so decided to bite the bullet and take the red plastic bag off of it. There was still some sort of slimmey liquid over the plate that held them under, but there was no bad odor. Although, it was heavier than what I normally try to lift, but once I started to the kitchen with it, I knew I had to follow thru no matter what. At the last I was chanting, "I think I can, I think I can." I managed to dump the contents into the sink and the disposal took care of the rest. It washed out well, but I am going to run it in the DW tonight. I continued to work slowly on the closet for a total of about 3 hours. The ironing board and the sitting end of the bedroom is still a horrendous mess, but I have a real feeling of satisfaction from the good start on the closet. I will be leaving the door open to it for a while now to encourage me to continue.

I had my evening meal tonight before my drinks again. I get in a rut -- had a repeat of the Buffalo Wings, but more of them, a couple of the Red Lobster biscuits, and some blanched broccoli. Did I answer your earlier question about them?

It was a lovely 75° today -- perfect working weather.

"No Name Jive"

26.IV.07 - MoM

I am starting this with split concentration, something I can do with a little effort -- the Democratic debates just started.

It is a great to have the sprinklers on again. A real plus is having the two coiled hoses built into round level boxes that are always on -- no fussing with turning on spigots. All winter I have been making numerous trips from my bathroom to the birdbath on the deck with ½ gallon jugs for both cleaning them and keeping them filled. It was so easy to get out the hose and squeeze the trigger,

I enjoy my bird watching from my desk/eating table. This spring I put out a ball of nesting stuff that I bought at the bird store and today there has been a chickadee making constant trips to it for nest building. Now that I have all a great view from my chair in the living room I am going to put a feeder in the patio. For several days there has been a phoebe (or pair) building a yearly nest just outside the window in a bend in the downspout. There is also a woodpecker working on the nearby tree. One of these days, Suzy, I'll send a picture of our Pileated woodpecker eating at the feeder last year.

I am continue to be surprised at how much can be done in FlyLady's 15 minutes. I had let a lot of stuff collect on the kitchen counters while scrubbing fountain parts and cleaning and planting the AeroGarden in the past week. Since Paige was going to be cleaning today and always washes the counters, in less than 15 minutes I had them cleared. I hereby swear that May is going to finally be the month that I "serious up" and get my bedroom/closet under control again!!!

I am still working on getting to bed earlier but was late again last night. However, I forgot my alarm so woke up late (6:30). I really caught up this afternoon with 4-fifteen minute naps. I must not be caught up yet as I am yawning and very sleepy right now so I am going to try again to get to bed early. I have my evening meal out of the way and am just finishing my 2nd drink. I just might make it tonight!

* * * * *

This is the rest of a letter from Saalfelden to Sandy and Bob on 17.XI.84

It was lovely getting back here. Even tho we were not expected, the house was warm and comfortable. We had not left a high/low thermometer out this time but it had been -3° on our digital that morning. From the cold rain last night there was fresh snow low down on the mountains this morning.

With the housecleaning and shopping in the morning, then getting a few of my records up-to-date, I have not had a chance to get the FILE disc copied and to start work on it. But I did seem to spend a lot of time fooling around with what I did. DoD is making noises about wanting some time at it to start with what I did. DoD is making noises about wanting some time at it to start some of his records so we will have to work out something.

Really nice to be able to poke in "freezer" and find out what I had left before making my meat purchases for the weekend. By the way, the "lonesome butcher" and the whole meat department is gone from Meinl. Bought all we could there but what he had was limited. We will miss him. Seem to have about filled up the page, so will get this off and write more later. Loved traveling with you -- you did well putting up with me. DoD just got back from picking up the packages that came to Herr Wontroba and we were invited to their place tomorrow afternoon. He saw the house that they built and is fabulated. They did it all, including digging the foundations by hand starting in 1947 and even built the furniture. He says that their "Florida" room is fantastic, Last line on page - more later.

Dirty Data

Gainesville

Too tired. Last night as we were going to bed, Bill sez, "We'll need to go straight from work to that awards thing." Me: "Awards thing? That's tomorrow night? Aw sh... shucks." I'd already laid out clothes for a normal work in the library day, and that beef I'd made a special trip out to buy yesterday had to go in the freezer.

Best I could do on short notice was cashmere and pearls. Turned out, that cocktail dress I bought recently would have been perfect, but who knew?

This thing was at the Thomas Center, an old hotel in the Duck Pond area, by the Gainesville City Beautification Committee-- and the new Library West addition had received one of their awards. The project planner invited Bill to go. Champagne and fancy appetizers for an hour, then 1.5 hours of non-stop self-congratulation. They did have a slide show of the winning projects, so it was not as tedious as it might have been.

But it made for a 12-hour workday, and now I'm wiped, and my feet are on strike. The comics work was grueling-- no touching of comics at all, just struggles with trying to sort a spreadsheet full of VERY dirty data. It is going to take forever to turn this into something useful. And then after all that work, I left my thumb drive with all today's work on it, in the computer at work. AGAIN.

Feeling pretty discouraged about the project, but that is no doubt mostly the fatigue talking. Only one way to solve that: Singing!

No, of course sleep is the answer, whatever the question. Gonna go get me some. Will try to do some catch-up tomorrow, as tonight's strange little event is worth some more comment..

A little cool for real spring yet

25.IV.07 - MoM

Suzy, your food "creations" continue to amaze me! It's great that Bill is also so open minded and adventurous. More power to both of you.

After several days of occasional work at cleaning the AgroGarden, it is "planted" and started. It isn't really that hard to do. A strange coincidence, this is the 3rd planting, and all of them were started on the 25th (the first one on Christmas day). It could be that the tomatoes and the "greens" will be ready to eat at the same time. I can see a start of blooms on the tomatoes. Their stocks are really sturdy.

I also spent a lot of time still trying to get rid of the white crusty stuff on the three "pans" of the fountain. So far, the top looks pretty good and this is on the under side. It would mostly show if one was sitting by it.

Tom finally made it by today to put more water in the fish tank and install a new feeding system. Next time, he says, he will redo the "plants" for spring. He has said he was going to for about a month, so I hope he does it this time. He hasn't been able to find anyone to help him and he keeps getting new hospitals, restaurants, etc. He also has birds, and shows and judges dogs and horses. He's a real nut.

The local weather said that it just could be possible to have 80° this weekend. Today was overcast and from the 40° this morning it only got up to 59° and was mostly overcast. As soon as it is a little nicer, I'll try to get some pictures. So far mostly bulbs, but I see that the first spray of Bleeding Heart is beginning to show color. I can see it from a north window in the former bar room, now part of the living room. What a wonderful improvement that was. Too bad DoD wasn't here for it. However, he liked small, cozy rooms while I love space.

This afternoon, after my more or less usual V8, Boost, etc., I began to feel a little hungry, so I decided to eat "dinner" (chicken pie and ice cream) at about 4, and have my drinks at 5 p.m. That seems to have worked out well for today. I really am going to go to bed early tonight. I am already yawning and it's only 6:30. I wonder if you inherited that 3 a.m., sleep time from me. In my night school days, before marriage, that was my pattern, but I could sleep till almost noon. And, again at the Drug Store, I kept crazy hours but only slept till 10:00 a.m. I like daylight now too much to want to sleep late. Now to see if I can stay awake to copy a letter.

* * * * *

Today, I found some of my letters from early Saalfelden. This one was dated 17.XI.84.

Dear Sandy and Bob,

I am trying out margins with the Christmas letter in mind, so will see how it works in a letter to you. As I write this you are still in Paris and there is just a chance that we will hear from you before you leave. I do hope so as there is much mail for you here, We have not tried sending a packet of mail, but I am sure that it will get complicated before we get thru with the language bit,

What a neat picture of you that Bob Bailey sent us and so beautifully matted along with a very nice note and the good picture of Bob and the group from the paper. A very nice thing for him to do. Also, had the pictures from Deb and fun to have. The ones I took when she was here were not good and the man said we did not have to take or pay for any we did not want. Did keep a few dark ones from when Marty was here as they show the table. Did get a really good one good one of the 3 of you under the lamp in DoD's room planning the trip and a good one of him at the computer with his schedule books spread out. He wants to do a photo and letter spread on what goes into planning a trip including a schedule plan and the actual way it ended up to send to some of our friends. We have a picture we can use for a card and they do print nice cards as they do in the states so will order on Monday if they can fit in the whole picture onto the card. Looks as if they may have to reduce it a bit to get it all on.

Was a fortunate thing that we did not try to continue the trip. Of course, as night follows day, DoD follows me into my sicks, He was a little rocky when he woke up in Paris Thursday, but insisted on going on with our trip to Frankfurt. Never did toss, but we took a taxi from downtown station to Sheraton at the Flughofen then we checked our big bag, did a bit of shopping for scarce items at the airport, then he got into bed and skipped dinner. He insisted that I was going to eat Chinese from one of the restaurants, as that was one of the reasons we had chosen that hotel. [It is connected to the airport by a walkway across the street from the hotel.] I got the food as take out but was not an unqualified success as it lacked the things to season it into hot stuff, but it was good food and I was pleased to be able to eat again. [I wonder why I can't enjoy hot stuff any more when I used to love the "hotter the better?"] He had very strange dreams as I had had -- almost like a fever delirium. With a light breakfast and lunch, we made it home okay. He managed to throw it off quicker than I did as he was starving when we got here so he insisted we eat at Hindenburg, where he put away liver noodle soup, a creamed veal dish, and hot apple strudel. But the whole thing still leaves you weak. Today is the first day that I have felt normal, and he is still not up to par. We do hope that you missed it!

Outrageous

Gainesville

The new Cuisine At Home arrived this week, and there on the cover was the answer to the day marked "something with hamburger" on the menu plan. I made: "Outrageous Stuffed Pimento Cheese and Bacon Burgers." I could only eat half mine-- they were half-pounders plus-- and Bill didn't think the slice of Vidalia onion embedded in his was cooked enough, but other than that, they were pretty darn good. And utterly sinful, for me, at least. Had turnip fries and some mushrooms I needed to use up quickly sauteed in the bacon grease. Not a green thing to be seen, a rare occurrence.

One more day (of the cooking week) to go. I made a quick trip to Publix this pm and found the beef tenderloin they were out of Saturday, so I have something quick to cook tomorrow night.

Doing well with my attempts to start dinner earlier so I have time to clean up as I go, and get the kitchen completely clean early in the evening.

Still working on the "Get to bed at a decent hour" dictum. Made it to bed by 1:00, the target, but failed to wake up at 8:15 as planned. Forgot to set an alarm, and Bill went in much later than usual, which threw off my backup alarm (his shower). We will keep trying.

Tomorrow I have to be up early so I can hitch a ride to the Comics Collection. I THINK I'm through with the rough index, and ready to do a crude first sort. The file is just under 14,000 lines-- some of those represent boxes of clippings, not comics, but it's safe to say that we have over 13,000 comics. I handled over a thousand of them the past few weeks.

Fool that I am, I've started reading The Road. I am sure to have terrible dreams-- or I should say, another round of the ones I've had in the past.

Always nice to read a letter from Chris. Thanks, Mom. And how nice to have Charlie to help with things and bring you Happy Meals... :-) Enjoy your spring flowers and the rest of your beautiful yard. Pictures, please!

A very pleasant day!

24.IV.07 - MoM

I was happily surprised when Ted arrived this morning to spend the day cleaning up the winter debris and leaves. He also got my little spout of water going into the former fish pond. (As he said, " - until the next raccoon decides to try to drink from it and messes it up.") I had talked about liking bamboo (even my favorite set of dishes has them). He was nursing a small type, and it seems to have survived the winter so he may be able to split off a little for me. I am so happy with my new thermometer that I showed it to him. He was very interested, and is going to order one at once. He also was happy to hear that the AeroGarden really does what the promotion says and is looking forward to having the herbs in the kitchen handy for cooking.

There was no chance for a nap today. Charlie was here before a dental appointment so my birdbath is no longer plugged in to keep from freezing, the indoor reading rain gauge no longer has an anti-ice snood and has moved from beneath the bench on my deck, ready to measure rain, and this weeks garbage/trash is now in their dumpster. He also took on the fountain that I had been storing in the sunroom. It is now in pieces so I could start cleaning it for deck installation. I had to soak and scrub the corroded stuff from water with white vinegar. I worked on it off and on all day with much scrubbing and it is pretty well finished and ready to get it back on the deck.

I was surprised to see Charlie again about noon as I thought he had finished his dental appointment earlier and had gone home. The dentist has a cancellation so had a little time so he did a needed root canal. Since it was lunch time, he had gone by McDonald's and along with his lunch had my choice -- a "Happy Meal" complete with the toy that we save for Ben. It is just the right size for me.

My good stands of jonquils, especially the ones Ted planted last Fall, brought back my earliest memory of them. In 8th grade art class, we were to design a cover for a journal-type book. I don't know where I got the idea to make repeat squares of a single jonquil. We hadn't ever had them in our yard in Iowa or Berkeley. Perhaps I had seen them as cut flowers in a florist window. The teacher was quite pleased with my effort and I got an A in that class. I was strictly a B student, except for music and art.

I think the habit of laying out the next day's clothes is a good one. It would have saved me a lot of stress, if I had known about it. As it is, my life is simple, but I always know what it is going to be, and, if it is a day out with Sandy, I decide ahead, sometimes modifying it due to unexpected weather.

After such a sleepless day, I am going to try to get to bed early!

* * * * *

This letter from Chris was August 27.1986. I sure there are some letters in between and I hope I will turn up more from you, too, Suzy. I know I have a lot more Dan letters somewhere in my closet chaos.

Dear MoM and DOD,

Got Dad's note on Monday and called the insurance agent today. They said you had been billed $927 and had until 9/15/06 to pay. Your new policy won't include theft as you feared. I'll call again early next month and arrange payment if it hasn't been received. I see you had the checkers on your checkers - Bill Fendrich called me about an hour after I'd called the insurance agent. I explained the situation and that everything seemed to be under control.

The cucumbers and squash are finally slowing down. I've put up about a dozen quarts of dills and given loads of stuff away, Wish I could get you some of the pickles. They are particularly good this year - not bitter at all. Tomatoes are just now ripening, but most have end-rot. It's not just me either, something to do with the climate this year has affected most in the area this way. I'm not really too unhappy about it as there has been plenty of other stuff and I'm looking forward to Fall and a break from this grind of daily picking, skimming, washing, etc. I licked my ground-hog problem by setting out strips of very thin (1/4-mil) aluminized mylar, very shiny stuff which waves around in almost no breeze at all, and that's enough to scare off the beasts. Result: beans that won't quit. People here at work love me as I give them excess.

Please excuse extra spaces between words: the space bar sticks on this cheap damned keyboard. Glad to hear Lala is recovering from her stroke. I may go to China (PRC) next summer, although not at all sure I can. Looking forward to a few days at Hatteras next month. There! I fixed this stupid keyboard with a shot of WD-40. How do you live without things like this in Austria? Ugh. Bowling starts next week. I won $23 in the bowling tournament I was in May. Big deal since it cost me $19 to enter, but better than nothing. If my partner had not sagged in the Doubles part, we would have won $250 … oh well. Suzy is all moved into her new house and is happy with it. I'll see it when I go down there for Xmas. I have renewed study of ancient Rome and am especially interested in comparing what I read and what I saw in Rome among the ruins. Now think that was the high point of the visit, and will be sure to want to do more of the same when I return. The books I bought there (particularly the one DOD and I bought on the city tour) add to the enjoyment and understanding.

Love, Chris

Red Things

Gainesville

Good day today. Maybe it was because I laid out my clothes last night? After I typed that, I went and laid out my clothes for tomorrow.

Good day despite it being a bad night. Determined to get to bed earlier, I went down at 1:00. And was still awake at 3:00, the more usual bedtime. The sleep that followed was broken and littered with disturbing dreams. Made myself get up at 9:30, and will try again for 1:00 tonight. We'll see how that goes.

Got the house blessed-- yay! Hardly ever get it done on Monday, which is the target. Got the usual Monday towel change/launder done.

Last Wednesday we had what I thought was a perfectly dreadful crock pot pork thing in a strange molasses-based sauce. While purging the fridge on Saturday, I told Bill I was going to toss the rest of it unless he wanted it. He said it wasn't all that bad, and why didn't I make a salad out of it? I used to use leftover meat this way a lot in years past, but not in the past 4-5 for whatever reason. I was surprised to learn he like them.

Tonight I took that dreadful pork and its sauce and made a spectacularly wonderful main dish salad with what I found in the fridge. Of course, I'll never be able to duplicate it, since it was entirely ad hoc, but for the record, it included green and red papper strips, celery slices, diced carrots, radishes, scallions, grilled eggplant, sliced cooked snow peas, a few handfuls of sliced cabbage, and of course the dreadful pork, diced... later I thought of other things I could have tossed in, but it was enough. For dressing I did the usual ad lib of sour cream, Dijon mustard, Worcester, rice vinegar, and-- an inspired touch as it turned out-- some of the awful molasses sauce, but with a substantial bit of the hot sauce I'd forgotten to add to the original pork recipe. You see why this is a one of a kind dish?

It has inspired me to add the ad hoc main dish salad back into the regular rotation. Too bad that it's too late to save the rib roast, which got tossed because I couldn't decide what to do with it. Next time I do one of those, the salad will be a viable option for the leftovers.

Thanks for transcribing the rest of that letter of mine, Mom. I vividly remembered fixing that Italian meal for Nan and Ralph, but had forgotten about the New Years Day meal for Lee and Bonny-- just that I'd previously done something similar for someone as a warm up. Wish I could remember how I did those carrots. I've thought of them many times but have lost the thread of what they were and how to do it. I no longer have the patience or passion to attempt Frutti di Mare in any form, alas.

I should add to last night's post that when I realized I'd just seen Lee Shiflett at the ALA exhibits in Orlando a few years back, I spun on my heel and went back and stood in front of him and just stared at him. He recognized me, we had a nice reunion and chat, but were both booked up for the conference. We keep in touch via Christmas cards and email.

What's a Red Lobster Biscuit? I assume something from Red Lobster.

And speaking of red things, my roasted beets still languish in the back of the fridge. Tomorrow it will be three weeks. Are they gone beyond salvation?

Almost like summer!

23.IV.07 - MoM

My quickie dinner (chicken pie and ice cream. yet again) is done and now I can have my drinks. This morning I had just finished my cookies and tea when Sandy popped in and out leaving me a big bunch of Red Lobster biscuits. There was an authentic recipe in the Star Trib, along with some other things from various restaurants. They were fresh out of the oven and she was on her way to a school in Hudson. They arrived at a perfect time -- I was trying to decide what to have as I wasn't in the mood right then for the tomato juice. (I am almost out of my "Cheese Chex" packets that I eat with it.) The cut fruit from the health food store was still good so I ate some more of it. I also had my noon time Boost and my Orange Juice/Meta mix.

I needed to get going on the forsythia notes -- the ones Sandy picked on Saturday were waiting in water. I managed to put together a design with a little blue flower that I need to find out its name. Somehow, when I tried to change a margin on the scanner I must I ended up getting it enlarged so that a ½ of the design took up a whle page. I had the manual out and eventually got it back to normal, but it messed up my time line. I am a little disappointed with it but I am getting used to it. Perhaps it would be better with very fresh blooms.

The sprinkler system is turned on and should start tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. It has seldom been as dry as it is this year. I am really enjoying the new things from Ted's major planting last fall. Also, I saw the first violet today. I had a lot last year but they are still buried under the leaves.

My other accomplishment today was to take my oldest, rattiest pair of slacks to experiment trying to partially take them apart at the crotch, try to redo them and put new elastic at the waist. I will hand baste them before I try the sewing machine just yet. They well could end up in the rag pile.

By the way, DoD died two years ago last January. Of course, I miss him a lot. I still have occasional little sad spells, but they only last a few minutes. We knew for a year that his kidneys were so shot and there was nothing they could do and he lived longer than the doctors thought he could. I remember how well Dan handled Pa's death. I could not have imagined that we would have so many years together and such a interesting life.

Didn't have time for naps today so bed it going to feel great. It was 71° high today but seems to be good sleeping temp tonight.

* * * * *

And now for the rest of Suzy's letter of March 2, 1986. I loved the details of your culinary prowess! Love your letters and so sorry that you didn't write more of them.

I'd bought myself a turkey to roast that day [Christmas] so stuck it back in the freezer. On New Years Day, I had Lee and Bonny over for a huge feast. This was the first time I'd ever cooked and entertained for dinner on my own, and I must say, it was a spectacular success. I slaved for days doing nouvelle cuisine things out of a cookbook called The Silver Palate, even doing the turkey their complicated way, and it all turned out to be well worth it. With that success under my belt, I felt brave enough to invite Nan and Ralph over two weeks ago. That one was a four course Italian spectacular, out of the "bible of Italian cooking" by Marcella Hazan. I'd sent away to specialty shops in New York for various authentic delicacies. I managed to make a reasonable facsimile of that wonderful "fruit di mari" seafood appetizer (my first dealings with preparing fresh octopus and squid) as well as duplicating that pickled carrot thing we loved so much in Como. The main course was a delicious Spaghetti al Carbonara (Nan providing freshly made pasta). You can see what an influence European travel has had on me. Broadening, indeed; the bad part is, I have gained quite a bit of weight! I can no longer wear any of my jeans or skirts. After 46 years of eating whatever and how much I wanted, I've got horrible eating habits, and it's a drag to have to start thinking about exercise and light beer!

Sales of the program seem to have topped out at about 70. The second version is still not out; documentation lost in the maze of typesetting. There turned out be a second bug in it, a very serious one. In the course of gathering evidence to present to a programmer, I isolated it and fixed it myself -- which made me very proud of myself, I can tell you. Terry called me last week, after six months of silence. He says he wants to work on it again and asked for a system disc, but I feel sure he won't really do it. I had a long letter from a systems librarian at U. of N. Carolina, who told me it was "a landmark in library training" and "its excellence will set a standard for those that come after it." That's nice.

Planning on visiting Chris in April, going to orioles opening day. Enough for now -- I'm coming down with a cold, and am worn outl.

Love, Suzy

Crystal and Beer Cans

Gainesville

Typical Sunday: Sleep late. Change and launder sheets. Spend longer than usual reading comics online. Get caught up with online Sudoku puzzles for the past few days. Read. Get caught up with other people's blogs. Read some more. Sleep a bit. Read.

Plus the usual routines, and dinner of course. Tonight was another take on a chicken and artichoke casserole, (or, "Cluck & Choke"), this one using strips of chicken and marinated hearts. Ran out of time to get the sauce reduced enough before putting it in the oven, so as I expected, it was a bit thin. Tasty, though.

I enjoyed reading my 1986 letter. It was nice remembering that Christmas I spent with Lee Shiflett. We'd been friends for 15 years at that point, and during that holiday, we decided that if we were both still free in 5 years, we'd get married. Five years later, he was married (second time) to a woman with two kids, and I was about to move in with Bill. I ran into him a couple of years ago at ALA in Orlando. It's funny-- I saw him, and thought, what an interesting face. What a prototypical male librarian face, but a very sweet one. I walked ten steps further until I suddenly realized who it must be. He's now dean of the library school at UNC-Greensboro after many years as a prof at LSU. He still credits (or blames, depending on circumstances) me with influencing him to go to library school himself.

I have absolutely no memory at all of doing research in the Documents Department for Dad. I can't even remember who would have helped me do it, back then. I might be able to find it in one of my old journals, but don't care enough to dig it out.

Ah yes, my fabulous beer can collection. I finally recycled it when I moved out of the little house on 11th St. And I still have those Austrian crystal champagne glasses Chris gave me, but one got broken just a few months ago, sad to say, while they were being washed.

Mom, you get up every morning at 5-something, no matter what time you go to bed. It's no wonder you need some sleep during the day. I see no need to apologize for this. Sleep is good.

I'm reading on Genius of the Place. Also picked up Neil's Fragile Things (which has been on my To Read pile since it came out) because one of its short stories, "How to Talk to Girls at Parties," has been nominated for both a Hugo and a Nebula award. He stacks up awards of all kinds like cord wood, but seems to take pleasure in each of them. It is a very bizarre story! I kept reading in the collection, because I'm still looking for something of the proper style and length to do at a Read-a-Thon-- even though this year's has been over for several weeks. There's always next year.

22.IV.07 - MoM

All the stuff in your yesterday's letter, Suzy, was new to me. I also don't mind hearing things over and over. Besides, I know I am guilty of repeating stuff a lot.

Sundays always get off to a slow start with so much paper to read and the TV section x-word. It was after noon when I tried to get active. I had my crutch and was set to go out to see the bulbs in the side yard. However, before I got out the door I began to feel a little strange. I decided I was going to wait and since I was also very sleepy I was going to take a few 15 minute timed naps. I also decided I was going to change out of the raggedy brown slacks and a favorite sweatshirt with raggedy cuffs. I would hate to have anyone see the comfortable ratty clothes I wear around the house. Until I can make up the material I have from my "Stretch and Sew" fabric, I don't want to wear out the few remaining slacks I have left. In a few weeks I will be wearing dresses again. My 3 back-to-back naps took care of my problem and all has been good the rest of the day. It goes with the territory when one gets old. I'm just happy that I am able to feel as well as I do and be active. I am back to normal tonight. I enjoyed the rest of the veal chop, shoestrings and some salad greens.

As I frequently say, I am going to bed early for a change, and I think this time I am really going to do it. Sunday night has nothing on TV to tempt me.

Thanks for posting my picts. Yesterday, Sandy had picked me some jonquils in front of the house that I didn't realize were there. I had put the pussy willows in a tall lavender vase but decided that I could tuck the short stemmed jonquils around the base for color. I thought it was a spring "statement" so I took some pictures.

* * * * *

This is anther of the rare letters from Suzy, dated March 2, l986.

Dear Dad and Mom,

I want to get this stuff off to you tomorrow, so will dash off a hurry-up letter. I gotta tell you, Dad, it's amazing (and very impressive, I think) that a Documents Librarian and I were able to turn this stuff up, given the information you and SuDocs supplied us! You said you'd been sent the "idiot treaty" already, so what was it you wanted? I finally decided you meant you'd been given the "idiot treatment." Do you realize how many government agencies have publications they call "Cumulative Bulletin"??? We spent about an hour going through various indexes, before stumbling on "The Internal Revenue Bulletin" sometimes called "Cumulative Bulletin." This may have seemed obvious to you, but not to us. We couldn't imagine what all those crazy number were, but with that date, I tracked down what turned out be one of two citations you gave, ie, there are two treaties, the second in 1958. At any rate, there they are, and I hope they give the information you want,.

I'm glad you got the second package, and how nice it was on D.O.D.'s birthday. What a shame that date has to be blackened hence forth by the explosion of the Challenger. It was clearly visible in Gainesville, and I'd intended to try to see it, but luckily, the delays means I was in a meeting when it happened. (Our only TV was in the living room and we frequently had dinner there for special occasions. It was quite a shock to see it there on TV.)

I turned out to have a rather nice Christmas, after all. One of my old boyfriends, Lee Shiflett, was back in Florida visiting his family. We went to the FBR Solstice party together, and he helped me build some neat shelves for my beer can collection. Between that, the new bookcases, and newly framed pictures on the wall, my place is much improved. Anyway, on Christmas Eve he called to invite me to spend Christmas with his extended family in a nearby small town, so I wasn't alone after all. Chris had sent me some beautiful Austrian crystal champagne glasses, so I was forced to keep up that particular family tradition.

Digital Campfire

Gainesville

Got your images uploaded and into your latest blog entry, Mom. However, since your post didn't mention them, they're just kind of there for decoration. You should be able to edit your post to talk about them, move them around, etc.

Thanks for transcribing the rest of my 85 post-Europe letter. I enjoyed reading it and remembering that nice homecoming from the Serials Unit staff. Also, I always get a charge out of any reference to that glitch in the 2.0 version of our program-- the "phantom cursor." The fact that it was unfixed when I wrote means I hadn't yet met Bill-- but was about to! He had just been hired, stepped in, and fixed the very simple error with a single line of code, in a program of thousands of lines he didn't write.

Both the Paris/glasses story and the Phantom Cursor story I know I've told many times, and I beg the pardon of the reader. The blog is, in some ways, a digital campfire. We tell and retell the stories that are important to us, the ones that changed things, in addition to telling the new stories of what happened today. Well, that's my excuse, anyway.

Speaking of blogs, we received news today, via blog, of the unexpected resignation of a key player in statewide library politics. Usually this kind of news gets out through official channels first, or at least official lists. How the world is changing...

Got the food shopping done, with reasonable success. Unable to find the beef tenderloin they had last week and I passed on (why didn't I buy it and freeze it?!), so have a blank day I'll need to fill later. Couldn't find a fresh fish I liked, so bought some frozen tuna steaks. Not all that great, but under a rather lovely Greek salsa, who cared? The salsa was so good I ate the rest all evening, and just finished it off.

Was very clumsy in the kitchen tonight-- besides banging and bruising myself, I managed to dump a pint of lovely local blueberries on the floor! Since Scooba had done the floors yesterday, I dared to rescue most of them and give them a thorough wash.

Bought a 5th of the new Tanqueray Rangpur Lime, and am enjoying it on the rocks tonight. It is very limey, but quite nice. At his request, I fixed Bill a G&T with it, but while he pronounced it very drinkable ("I could get used to this"), he opted for original Tanq for subsequent drinks.

I finished the Didion book this morning. Sandy, you should check this one out. It's difficult-- not to read, as it's so readable it's almost impossible to put down, but in the way it bravely faces everyone's deepest fears, and stares them down. I admit I've not read anything else of hers, although I knew who she was-- always figured she was too bleak and literary for my taste, and maybe most of her stuff is.

But this is different. It's about what happens to "rational" thought in the face of sudden loss and grief. Mom, I think you might find something of interest there, if not now, then eventually. You have lived through the first year, and made it. Didion lives in another world than we do-- moving easily between Paris, New York, Hollywood and Honolulu. There is a certain fascination with the lifestyle that helps get past the emotional minefields. But in the end, the important thing is that we all face this one way or another, and this is a helpful guide.

Well! Didn't mean to say that much. I will get back to Jane and the... whatever it is before I tackle The Road or the graphic novel of the 9-11 Report. Need some literary R&R.

Really felt like summer!

21.IV.07 - MoM

I don't think I am going to want to sleep in one of my flannel nightgowns tonight. My new outdoor thermometer is in place and I love it. It is mostly a transparent square with large black numbers. The slightest breeze changes the 10th of a degree. I asked Charlie to mount it in one of the north windows in the "expanded living room." It was mostly 75-ish°. It also has a high and low that resets twice during the 24 hours. I have an outdoor thermom with the rain gauge on the deck on my bedside table but I have to get close to read it.

While they were here, Sandy cut me some forsythia. I have been waiting for it for a year as I want to develop a note using it in the design. There are so many little bulbs popping up (many with obscure names) that I can keep busy for a while for the same purpose.

I hadn't realized that Ted had planted a lot of jonquils in the front yard on the bank near the street. I am on the wrong side in the car when we return home. Sandy picked them and brought them up today. They had very short stems (due to the strange temps this spring) so I added them close to the rim of the vase I had the pussy willows In for some color. I don't know if you got the pictures twice that I e-mailed today as they ended up in the trash instead of sent mail, so I rescued them and tried again.

We finally cut off all of the herbs, today, as they were so overgrown and scraggly looking. I am now in the process of cleaning out that planter and tomorrow I will replant it with a salad greens mixture. The tomatoes are something else. They are "cherry-type with the strongest, thick stalks I have ever seen. Soon, it will be time to trim the top of them to stunt their height and keep a thick stalk to support the "fruit." The company has certainly put a lot of time and development effort into doing this growing system. No wonder they aren't "inexpensive."

The expensive veal chop from Kowalskis was okay, but I have lost my touch when cooking. I breaded it with flour, egg and seasoned crumbs. Part of the problem is my fading taste buds. Also, lack of practice figures into it. But what the heck, it's food and there is plenty left for a day or two.

Enjoyed your letter, Suzy. I remember the culture shock when we first moved here. My first thought in Europe each morning was to wonder what kind of language problems I was going to have that day. Actually, I missed it when we moved here. I really could have used what I learned here during the 3 years of German when we moved there. The 4 years of French did help some during the 5 years we rented houses each fall in France. And to think I wasn't very enthusiastic when DoD first mentioned going to Europe and perhaps spending some time there. I was really enjoying our life in Shannondale too much. Al and Marian Fleigner had put their 2 teen daughters in school in Switzerland while they lived and traveled there.

* * * * *

A continuation of a letter from Suzy to us in Saalfelden, dated 11.Nov 1985.

I've been pretty euphoric since I got back. The glasses is part of it, but also, it's so easy to do everything, like shopping -- store clerks understand me (I find I chatter with them much more, just because I can) and I can tell just what something costs. My apartment seemed spacious seems spacious and luxurious. I can hear music anytime. All these things you take for granted become special when you go without them. Also, being completely removed from work and its problems was helpful -- being faced with a completely different set of problems puts things in perspective.

It was good to get back to work. My people gave me a great welcome -- they'd re-done my desk area, giving me an additional work surface and bulletin board, which they'd decorated with "Happy Birthday" things. They'd sorted my mail logically. And they kept a day-by-day log of what went on while I was gone (two typed pages) that was very helpful in reorienting myself. Also, sales of the program were at 33 when I got back but shot up to 40 in several days. Our original break-even was 41, but we never placed any advertising, so we are actually in the black now. I should have some or all of the bonus money sometime after the first of the year. Money will then start to accumulate to buy equipment and help to do more. I hope. The bad news is, our network, who was supposed to help us promote it, wants to wait until version 2.0 is out; they think those enhancements are critical. There is one serious glitch in version 2.0. Terry visited while I was gone and told Sally he'd work on it, but I've not been able to contact him.

When we got back to Chris' (around dusk -- right on time) it was cold enough to have a fire (the cats were both very pissed off at him, though, and refused to join us). It went down to 28° that night. I got off the plane in Gainesville the next day, wearing a turtleneck, blouse, two sweatshirts, down jacket, scarf, wool socks (which I love -- thanks, Ma) -- and it was 82°!! You never saw such a quick strip tease act. It seems I missed a horribly hot and humid October, and got in on the rain from yet another hurricane. Since then, it's been beautiful, mostly clear and warm, though today is a little hot.

Newsbriefs: Billy & his wife Alice (they live in Texas) had a baby boy Oct. 14. I had a letter from Andy Cassatt, written before I'd mailed my card from Paris. He may be in Florida later this month to visit his daughter and ex- so I will maybe see him.

Take care. Continue to enjoy life there and forget about
Crackerbarrel cheese!

Love, Suzy

I Can See Clearly Now

Gainesville

Heh-- I never did return Dad's glasses. I wore them, then replaced them with drug store ones of every increasing strength, until I finally had to get a separate strength for reading... multiple pairs of these reading glasses in every room, at work, etc... Crazy how long I can put something off. Finally, TWENTY YEARS later, I went to an eye doctor, got the bifocals I'd needed all along, and now am very happy with one pair of glasses.

I enjoyed seeing that letter, because it is exactly how I feel about that trip to this day-- the good parts are what I remember most vividly.

I rejoice at seeing the splendid pictures of Sandy's kitchen island coming together-- what a great sequence! The persistence of vision over several years fills me with admiration. Please, Sandy, keep taking pictures as you progress, so I can enjoy it vicariously.

I stayed home today. The blister on my foot is not healing properly, and I could not figure out a way to get around the library in my semi-lame state.

Pretty easy to get around the house, though, so I got the daily and weekly routines done, plus laundry (while catching up with Jon and Stephen). Even got the fridge cleared for next week's action-- knowing what I have and need to use is halfway toward upcoming menus.

Struggled with Scooba while trying to do the kitchen floor, and realized I'd done him wrong last time-- think I accidentally put the wrong cleaning stuff in him-- the little bottle of blue stuff was apparently dishwasher rinse aid! I figured this out belatedly, remembering how it foamed. I had diagnosed the problem correctly, but it took Bill to (instantly) deduce what needed doing to fix it.

I am reading The Year of Magical Thinking. I will speak of it when I'm finished.

I'm wondering what was in this sack of stuff from the recent Calif trip you mostly tossed yesterday, Mom. Good to hear you did a 15 minute stint of something. It makes a difference. I used my timer all day to keep me from sinking too deeply into either book or house-stuff. Please keep reporting about the bulbs that are starting to bloom. It's a spring drama that never grows old.

20.IV.07 - MoM

After writing Suzy's letter stuff, I am having my own problems with my eyes. So, will just send this and do a better blog, tomorrow.

* * * * *

Hey! A letter from Suzy, dated 11 Nov 1985

Dear MoM & Dad,

Just a quick note to let you know we made it home okay. Now that I've rested up and gotten more or less caught up, I can reflect on the trip and think about how much I enjoyed it. The pace was hectic, but I really learned a lot, and now have pictures in my mind of places I'd like to revisit and a general sense of how train travel works. The highpoints for me were Giverny, Barcelona, the car trip in the Arles area, walking around Saalfelden, and of course, Roma. It's especially nice to know what your place looks like and how you live.

I've been buying souvenirs retrospectively: Michelin green guides, maps, picture books of Paris and the food of Italy. Found that after a month, I missed espresso so much I had to buy cheap espresso/cappuccino machine. I even bought a beginning tape course Italian -- I'd vowed to learn Italian the last time I was there, but this time I'm determined to actually DO it.

I must admit, though, the most life-altering aspect of the trip was discovering these glasses! I hadn't realized how bad my sight had gotten and how it was crippling me in a number of ways. Especially at work -- it is astonishing the difference it makes; I'd been feeling stupid and unconfident because I couldn't see to understand things. It was that I couldn't read things well enough or fast enough to understand them! It seems so EASY to read things now I just breeze through memos, procedures, newsletters, etc. Makes a difference at home too things like cooking -- not only can I easily read the recipes, I can measure things better and see how done things are getting. I can put polish on my nails. See how dusty things are getting. And I can read what I write … I've also discovered that these glasses correct my long distance vision in my bad eye -- that's kind of a revelation. Really, I do plan to go get my own prescription soon (these are so good, I'm convinced dime store ones will not do) and I will send these back to Dad as soon as I replace them. Thanks so much for letting me use them and bring them home.

My sprinklers can't come too soon -- yard is so dry

19.IV.07 - MoM

Today, I had doors open and only a short time with the fireplace to take the chill off the front room. I haven't had the other heaters on for several days. I do keep the heat on low in my bathroom in case of getting up in the night. I leave my bedroom door open at night and during the day some. However, I am still using my "winter" down comforter and put on the mattress pad heater on sometimes during the night. I am still sleeping in a light flannel nightgown. Really good sleeping temps.

I took a walk around the patio and the redesigned side yard today. I did use one crutch and it worked fine. Ted had planted many, many bulbs last fall and there are many up. However, not a lot of the jonquils are showing blooms on the way. That warm spell we had earlier followed by more cold and snow came at a bad time, I think.

I didn't make as much progress today as yesterday, but I did have several delightful back to back naps in Lafuma in the sunroom with the glass on the doors open making for perfect napping temperature.

Later, I did manage to do a FL 15 minute or so sorting/tossing/saving (a very small bit) from a sack of stuff from our Jan/Feb trip to CA. Thank goodness, most was tossable.

When we lived in WVA we had a great variety of birds -- many more kinds than I have here. Charlie is the bird authority and Sandy has been learning from him. Today with the sun on the feeder, I had a very red male cardinal sharing the feeder with a now yellow finch. I was sorry that I didn't have my camera handy. The past couple of years our Palliated woodpecker has been back and was eating at the feeder instead of pecking huge holes in some of our trees.

I am glad I had a chance to see Sandy and Charlie's kitchen a few weeks ago with the makeshift island removed so enjoyed seeing the cabinet frames. It will really be quite spectacular when it is finished. I remember what fun it was to watch each of our various kitchens became reality. Once in a while we toy with the idea of redoing my little kitchen here. One of my favorites was in Saalfelden. I loved the stove there -- the oven pulled out like a drawer -- no stooping to peek in, easy to lift our the food or to put it in without getting burned.

In the envelope of letters that I have been copying from, were copies of your "Top Ten," "Bottom 15." etc. "George Michael" caught my attention and I enjoyed your comments about him. It wasn't too long after our arrival in RF, I had "discovered" him and wanted his "Faith" tape. I also remember liking "Kissing a Fool." I have forgotten the other cuts but there were a lot I liked. I am afraid that my tapes in my bedroom are probably no longer good. I know my Berlitz no longer plays. I wanted to buy "Faith," so one day when I was shopping in the Cities with Sandy and Marty, we went to a record store. The clerk got a kick out of an old lady wanting that tape. I had forgotten it -- I must get it out and see if it still works.

It is getting late so I am going to save copying your letter to us after you arrived back home from your visit with us till tomorrow. It's late - more later.

pix

The last big piece of the island:

It's a monster!


Will it fit through the door? Is it a boat we've built in the basement?


Just fits.


Cabinet in.


Here's the island nearly complete. One more piece to go, and that a small one, behind the stove.

lunch for 10, etc.

Well, first of all, lunch for ten. This was seven student teachers, Ruth (who is on sabbatical this semester but is still involved, since four of my teachers are her students), and the principal of Spring Valley High/Middle School.

I got up at five to start cooking. Made a carrot cake (with cream cheese frosting), spinach lasagne, and the greek salad from FC #79. Also got things set up to feed that many, this time in the dining room. The kitchen, in serious transition mode (more on this later), is a little crowded at the moment. Anyway, I got everything ready with only moments to spare.

This school principal is very nice. She is young and very accessible. She actually listened to the questions the students asked and answered them lucidly and completely. I liked her a lot. What a great resource, only a mile from here.

I did face a dishes crisis, though. In recent years we've had these festivals at Ruth's house, but last spring I had the kids here for one of them. Served taco twist, and went to the SV drugstore at the last minute and found, amazingly, really nice pasta-sized bowls for $1 each. Bought a dozen. I used them again for the first meeting this spring (I guess Ruth and I met our students on campus fall semester), taco twist again, but I couldn't think of something for this meeting that I could serve in bowls. The dish crisis is ongoing, but has been exacerbated by the breaking of one and chipping of another of our Dansk dinner plates, getting us down to four decent ones. We do have two sets of nice china (12 of everything), but that has to be hand washed, and so it is used only for special holiday meals. What to do. On Monday I went to the drugstore again, and in their tiny housewares department they had a set of dishes with blue bands around the outside. Not at all bad. And what I liked was that they had mugs and no saucers. How terrible it is to buy dishes and be stuck with saucers. Anyway, the set was $14.99. Hard to beat that. So I had enough plates by using the four new ones, the four good ones, and Ruth ate from the chipped one and I ate from an odd white one. I wish I could find two more sets of the ones I bought in SV, but they had just the one. I'll keep my eyes open in cheap places, though. It'd be nice to have a big set of dishwashable dishes. Isn't this interesting?

Anyway, everyone left at 1:30, and Ruth and I teed off at 2, playing a quick nine holes. I was exhausted after that. Seven hours of cooking and two hours of walking on the golf course had my feet and legs ultra tired, I can tell you.

Monday was a particularly good day. Nice weather. I helped Charlie work on cabinets, but I also got the lettuce bed weeded out and spaded, ready to plant. It was too windy for the teeny lettuce seeds, but I should be able to plant today. I did a whole bunch of other wonderful stuff, some outside and inside, none of which I remember, since that was Monday, and it's Thursday already.

Anyway, the great thing is that the island in the middle of the kitchen is being built! About half of it is installed, and the next big piece is in the garage and will be ready to come inside within the hour. These are cabinet shells so far. A few shelves, but since most things will be big and little drawers, they will not be fully functional for a week or so, until the drawer pulls are shipped here and the drawers are made. Anyway, this is incredibly wonderful progress. Finished cherry drawer fronts and doors are a long way off (have to save up again, since we've now depleted the entire building fund with this project and the floor -- to be put in in just a few weeks now), but once the drawers themselves are in, I can begin figuring out where things will go. And I will have a huge new surface to work on. I'm already using the temporary countertop on the north end. The very north end of the island is a little lower than the rest and will be a huge maple breadboard (not cutting board) baking area. With a view, of course. I am wildly excited about all of this. The bottom part of the pantry (north wall) and the broom closet (ditto) went in a couple of weeks ago. The top part of the pantry is next. Here are some photos, but it's hard to get the idea of it all from them.

But first: Caution! These images are too big, so don't click on them.

What's left of the Easter eggs Ben and I made. This is what I see when I open the fridge. Kind of hard to eat the little fellows (only two left), but I'll have to do it soon.


And the first island piece to go in. This photo gives an idea of the footprint of the island; it doesn't look big in this picture, but it is indeed big:


Note garlic-growing book in the foreground (which reminds me, I need to go take the winter mulch off the garlic).

Of course Puss has to explore every new space.


Here's the second piece in. Charlie put a slab of melamine board over this yesterday and I was able to use it while I was cooking. You can see that the north end is lower, for baking.

This is the proto-pantry and broom closet. The rest of the pantry will go where the hanging pans are. I'll lose all that nice hanging stuff, but I'll have room for food. The hanging stuff has always been temporary. My goal is to have everything in cabinets, and the absolute minimum on countertops. The microwave will go inside a cabinet, too, as will the bag sealer.


Charlie has just gone across the road to get our neighbor, Jim French, to help move in the big piece that is now finished. I helped move in the other two island pieces (Jim helped get in the pantry and broom closet), and believe me, it was not a bit fun.

As soon as this next thing happens (in a few minutes, I believe), I'll post a couple of more photos.

One more note: the Martys' cat, Kako, is no more. He got sick, then sicker, and by the time it was discovered what was wrong with him (blockage), he was so weak he was likely not to survive the (very expensive) surgery. He left his body (with the aid of the vet) yesterday early evening. Bye, Kako.

Notes for a Future Post

Gainesville

Not sure I can put together a coherent blog post tonight. A full day at the library, around so many people, in such an emotionally charged atmosphere really took it out of me.

I will make myself some notes, to get back to when the energy is renewed:

• Finished the Box From Hell (2000 AD, a British zine, origin of Judge Dredd)
• Lunch at Ashley's with Barbara. Travel/cruise talk
• Got a crock thing started early
• Remember to dispose of spices (especially curry) responsibly
• BBC News to the rescue
  

Other stuff. Which I'm sure I'll remember eventually.

Once again, I guessed badly wrong about the weather, and wore a short sleeved knit top, just a blazer over it. (Oh yeah, slacks too, etc.) Expected it to be like yesterday only warmer. Surprise: It was colder, and, miraculously, rainy. The rain was very very welcome, but coupled with the steady rain, very winter-like and sick-making. Immediately upon getting home, I piled on the full winter clothes, still wearing them and they feel good. What intensely strange weather is this for April 18 in Florida?

I enjoyed hearing about your efforts today, Mom, especially the stuff about the various bird feeders. Please keep us informed about what birds you see, where and when. I love to hear about this stuff. It was also interesting to hear about your sodium count for the day. It is truly amazing how much salt is added to make commercial convenience food taste better.

Which reminds me: a book I bought yesterday but forgot to mention was Great Food Fast, a compilation from Everyday Food. I'm glad to have it! There have been some wonderful recipes in that little mag. The book, though, is very heavy, and was most likely the straw that literally broke this camel's back. The camel needs to take it easy tomorrow and then get back to some gentle stretching and T'ai Chi.

Tonight's Word: Gentle

New word tomorrow.

I think that spring is really here!

18.VI.07 - MoM

I can see how the "Getting Shorter" heading would be confusing. I add the title as I post after doing it in word first instead of when I start to write. So, that applied to the length of the blog.

My chicken pot pie is almost ready to come out of the oven but I will start this. Today, I kept track of everything I have eaten for sodium and calories. I am shocked! It is a good thing I am only eating ½ of a chicken pie as the whole one has 1000 sodium count. The can of V8 is 690! I haven't had a single "salt bomb" yet today. I am going to try to eat only 14. I know they are very bad because the Ranch Dressing has a lot of sodium. Also, I have had no "added" salt for quite a while. The sodium for today has been 2,235 and the calories a reasonable 1,500. I weighed this morning and I was surprised to be up to 142, the most I have weighed in a while. Of course, I only weigh once in a while. Guess I should go back to doing it more often. My ankles are swollen again tonight. I was on my feet a lot today. (Later after sitting with my legs up the swelling is down.)

On the Cities NBC channel they did a spot tonight from River Falls! Wonder how they chose us instead of Hudson? They showed a short interview with Lyn Johnson, the owner of Emma's Bar, and with a couple of unidentified women here. A new brewery in Wisconsin wants to make it legal to give away free samples in stores to people of legal age.

Today the University of Minnesota shut down their campus till 10:00 p.m. There was a bomb threat and they were taking no chances.

The FL bedroom cleaning was put on hold today. I decided to make an effort to get the food out for the orioles for their current approximate due date for our area. The weather has been delightful for several days so it could happen anytime. I decided while I was cleaning up their feeder, I might as well do the two hummingbird feeders. Once I got into it there was no good stopping place. Perhaps I will try next fall to clean them when I take them down. While doing the cleaning, I remembered a tiny brush that I had used last year that I bought at the bird store especially for it. (I never did find it.) That lead to taking everything off the shelf near the sink that has dish & dishwasher soaps, old sponges, scrubbers, and 3 cans of cooking sprays (one that went back to 1989.) Purging and cleaning off that shelf then putting down some shelf paper, sidetracked me for a while. I also did a small drawer on the other side of the sink with signs of mice. Well worth the time it took. Another little problem -- I had tossed the little bit of grape jelly for the oriole dish from the fridge early this year. Until I get out to get some more, I am making do with the only thing I could come up with to substitute -- a couple of spoonfuls (my computer speller says it isn't spoonsful) from a jar of orange marmalade. Since they are attracted to the color orange, I stirred in a little red color to make it a good bright orange. The birds are making some use of the ball of nesting stuff I bought last year.

At last, overnight the Forsythia that Ted planted last year has burst into bloom. I love where he planted it -- just outside the window above the TV set and in direct line of sight from my recliner. (That window is at ground level as the north side of the living room and garage are built into the hill. On the inside it is level with a sort of mantel with bookshelves below that are full mostly with cookbooks.

I slept pretty well last night with just a little leg problem. Still bothers me some during the day, too, but used the walker and walked some without -- about half and half.

Just heard a noise (sort of thud) outside the living room that I hope was only a deer or some such. I still have my timid moments. It is the only negative to living in a glass house.

I still say you don't read books, Suzy, you inhale or devour them!

I am going to try to get back to that bedroom closet tomorrow. I am determined to get that area under control again.

* * * * *
And, now a letter from Chris dated 11/14/85

Dear Mom and DOD

Thanks for the breakdown of damages and the plans for the house. The trailer still is here and it may not be possible to move it, but I'm hoping. Talked to Suzy last week and she was still very up from being home again, but also really enjoying the trip in retrospect, as do I. As she says, it really spices up your conversation.

To make the vocabulary program print, one must insert a command PR#1 within the program. Then every PRINT command will direct output to the printer instead of the screen. To restore the screen output you need a PR#O command. Just type them in at the position you want output shunted to the printer. To make the program be listed on the printer, then a direct command (no line number) PR#1 will direct all subsequent output (until a PR#0å is encountered) to the printer. So a LIST or a list line LIST line #1-line #2 will list the program or desired portion to the printer. I've enquired about IIC manuale withour much success. I suggest writing the main headquarters of Apple in Cupertino. Wish I could do more to help out.

Thanks again for the great guide service in Europe and I really am looking forward to doing it again.

Love, Chris

Good Stuff, Again

Gainesville

Good example of instant karma today: I tried to talk myself out of stopping at B&N today, but failed. Then I tried to limit my purchases; failed miserably. After carrying my purchases just a short distance to the car, I was hit with a horrible backache. Still hurts. I'm sitting still and drinking lots of pain medication.

Ah, but what wonderful purchases they were... almost work the pain. B&N had a special display table for graphic novels in the center aisle, many neat things they've never carried before. Reminded me of the Goering's table at the UF Comics Conferences. I went a little nuts. Three excellent titles, one of which I've already wolfed down (burp): the stunningly wonderful American Born Chinese. Also got the next three JAM's-- Genius of the Place, Stillroom Maid, and Prisoner of Wool House. And just for good measure, I bought a couple of books I know will be bummers to read, but will be worth it: The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion) and The Road (Cormac McCarthy), this latter out in paperback 6 months early, thanks to Oprah. My To Read stack runeth over.

And tomorrow is Wednesday, garsh darn it! I have scheduled myself to do service to the comics cause instead of reading them. Bad timing.

A truly beautiful day-- mid-70's, a few high cirrus clouds. After the B&N splurge I did the real errands: vitamins at Walgreens, and a case of Tanquery half-gallons from ABC: G&T season has arrived.

I tried some weird baked chicken nuggets tonight. I don't think Micky D has any worries about competition-- but on the other hand, his have about 35 ingredients, and mine about 5, the only chemical being baking soda. Dipped in ranch dressing, we found them quite edible. Just plain, the cat thought they were about the best thing she'd ever tasted, judging from her squeeks and grunts of pleasure. I whomped up a quick cole slaw, steamed some snow peas infused with fresh thyme, and made some celery and carrot sticks to share the ranch dip. This odd meal worked surprisingly well.

Shorter every day, Mom? What are you talking about, the nights? Yep, my most productive time cycle is shrinking away, and I predict it will continue to do so for another two months or so. At which time, I will celebrate the impending return of a more balanced light/heat regime.

Need to cut the night so I can spend a day at play in the fields of the comics.